This invention relates to door and window construction particularly in respect of sliding doors and window units made of a framed section where the door or window panel sits within the frame resulting in a non flush sliding unit.
Sliding doors and windows are a popular method of providing an unobtrusive and readily automated opening or closing mechanism.
Such mechanisms generally rely on the availability of a wall cavity into which the door or window can retract when opened to expose an aperture without any residual obstruction by the door or window member.
The automation of doors is common in commercial installations and such sliding doors, often incorporating glass, are frequently constructed out of extruded sections into which is fitted a glass panel or panels. Extruded material allows the precise manufacture of close tolerance framing materials for windows and doors.
Aluminium or steel is a readily extruded material which is commonly used in such commercial sliding door assemblies and provides a reliable manufacturing material capable of great strength and minimal bulk. A key benefit of such extrusion and glass or infill construction is the ability to provide a secure door assembly which can allow maximum use of the infill material either to minimise weight or maximise light transmission in the case of glass infill.
Door suites arc well known which incorporate one or two fixed units and one or two sliding units where the fixed unit is secured to an opening and serves as a jamb for a sliding unit which can slide back and forth past the fixed unit. In this manner, the need for a wall xe2x80x9ccavityxe2x80x9d is avoided. Such assemblies to date use an extrusion which, in cross section, places the glass infill panels midway through the extrusion thereby exposing a lip between the glass panel and the flush or face surface of the door frame. Such a lip can cause great injury to a user of such a door assembly if the user were to inadvertently place their fingers or any other object against the glass panel of the door unit as it was sliding past the jamb formed by the fixed unit. Similar problems exits when non glass infill panels are used.
In order to address this problem, door assemblies to date must be manufactured such that the sliding door unit or component is arrested before it slides completely past the fixed unit thereby leaving a space between the offending lip and the jamb. However, such an action severely restricts the full opening potential of such assemblies in addition to leaving the edge of such doom exposed to abuse or interception by objects and people passing through the opening.
Sliding doors which could be safely opened fully would be an enormous advantage.
One object of the invention is to provide an improved sliding door or window system.
The term xe2x80x9cface surfacexe2x80x9d shall be read to refer to the exposed surface of a frame member substantially coplanar with an infill panel inserted in said frame.
Accordingly, the invention provides a door or window unit adapted for use in a sliding door or window assembly wherein said door or window unit includes an infill panel or panels housed in a surrounding frame characterised in that said infill panel is fitted substantially flush to a face surface (as hereinbefore defined) of said flame.
The frame is preferably constructed of an extruded member having an elongate retaining channel for housing said infill panel.
The retaining channel preferably incorporates a bearing surface which is adapted to retain said infill panel in abutment such that the distance between said bearing surface and the face surface of said frame is minimal.
The bearing surface may be in the form of an elongate removable bead.
The infill panel may be glass or other material transparent or opaque to visible light.